Friday, September 9, 2016

Sunset Cruise on the Chobe River, Botswana

We were off on a sunset cruise, along with 50 of our closest friends. The first thing we spotted was this heron with a fish in its mouth.

And a crocodile...I found the crocs hard to spot sometimes. You're not that close and look at all the logs. Can you spot him?

This elephant was enjoying his mud bath, which they use as sunblock.

Here comes a boat somewhat similar to the one we were on, except that ours had an "upstairs" which could hold about 10 people.

A female kudu...kudus supposedly get their name from the sound they make, but when I googled it, I thought it sounded more like a dog barking.

More mud baths...it is said that the left ear of an elephant resembles the map of Africa. I'm not sure why just the left...

This guy was good at applying mud to himself and anyone behind him as well.

We saw several crocodiles including this medium sized one. They grow until they die and can be 5-6 metres long. Food of choice...fish and meat.

A submerged hippo...

These young elephants were play fighting. It's a good way for them to learn to assert themselves and show who is dominant.

I thought at first this was a weird idea, but it's actually quite clever. You pay to go out in this boat and use their cameras with super zoom lenses. I'm not sure if you get the camera card after, but there were several times those lenses would have come in handy.

The boats look like they are on land, but are pulling into the small inlets to get closer to the animals.

The sun was starting to go down...

Some African buffalo spend six months on an island. If they get into deep water, they can be killed by a crocodile.

This neat looking bird is a Pied Kingfisher...

African buffalo with a croc in the foreground...they're keeping an eye on each other.

More birds in flight...

We watched this crocodile slither into the water...

Look at those eyes...

And another one close by...this was certainly crocodile territory, with abundant wildlife for successful hunting.

And then he surprised us by opening his mouth and leaving it open. Crocodiles open their mouths to cool their bodies down. And look...no tongue!

I would have just thought these birds were sitting on a rock, but our guide said the storks were eating an elephant. Booo...he most likely would have been sick.

Look at this beautiful houseboat...no jumping into the water here.

Watch this hippo go into the water. It shows how they don't really swim; they walk or float.

After seeing many, many hippos, we finally caught one doing the big hippo yawn. It was awesome!

Their canines and incisors can grow to be 15 inches long!

I wasn't going to be the one to tell him he had weeds in his teeth.

A huge herd of buffalo...

Pretty happy with our cruise...we had seen so much in a short time.

The sun was going down and it was soon time to head back to the lodge.

Back at the lodge, they had the most amazing buffet dinner. No sparse meals here...

Tomorrow we are heading back to Victoria Falls, where our safari began. We'll be touring the Falls and then packing up to go home.

1 comment:

I started the blog in 2008 when we decided to drive across Canada. I knew I would never remember one town from the next once we got home, so I started blogging our trip. Then it became a neat way to document our travels and show our trip photos!